Cherise Wolas's Blog, page 6
June 10, 2018
JOAN ASHBY ON SALE!
THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY is $2.99 on Amazon Kindle, Apple Ibooks, Kobo, and Google Play. Don't know how long this sale lasts, so snatch it up now!
April 15, 2018
Publishers' Weekly interviews Cherise Wolas about THE FAMILY TABOR
Shared History: PW Talks with Cherise Wolas
'The Family Tabor,' Wolas's follow-up to her acclaimed 'The Resurrection of Joan Ashby,' is a piercing and multilayered portrayal of an accomplished yet deeply troubled family.
Wolas's second novel, The Family Tabor, unfolds over the course of a single weekend during which the Tabor siblings gather to celebrate their father, Harry, who grapples with the demons of his past misdeeds even as he prepares to accept a prestigious honor. His wife, Roma, is a respected psychologist who struggles to help her own children—Phoebe, Camille, and Simon, outwardly successful adults who are nevertheless caught in maelstroms of interpersonal and internal conflict. Wolas spoke to PW about writing complicated lives, the book's religious themes, and the fascinating dynamics of family.
Can you talk a bit about your background and how you came to writing?
I've written since childhood. I was a lawyer when I wrote a first novel, and I left the firm to revise it, but ended up founding a film company, where I acquired and developed the scripts, stories, and novels of others. Then I thought, "Why am I working on other people's words when my own are what I want to be working on?"
Are the Tabors based on any family you know?
No, but certainly I know people who are searching for love or feel they made the wrong choice in love or are hungry to understand their lives or want a deeper spiritual connection or suddenly find themselves unsure of everything or have had their worlds upended or wish they could undo something they've done.
The Tabors are exceptional in many ways, but they are far from happy. Can you talk about the discontent that many of your characters experience?
The Tabors are accomplished, intelligent, and worldly, but those attributes don't safeguard them or anyone—fictional or real—from confusion and struggle. Harry Tabor is delighted with the world he's created for himself, but then everything he believes about himself is upended. Roma Tabor is a "miracle worker" psychologist for children and teens and a mother who loves her children but sees them clearly. Phoebe, Camille, and Simon are at personal crossroads, each seeking something we all want—love or connection or the belief we're living our right life. The Tabors find themselves searching for new paths they hope will lead them in the right direction.
Religious identity—particularly Jewish and Catholic—plays a fairly significant role in the story. Did you always intend for this theme to be present, or did it arise organically?
I knew that the Tabors were Jewish and that Harry Tabor considers himself a "historical Jew." I also knew that Simon was married to Elena Abascal, who is Catholic, and that their marriage is undergoing some strain. But otherwise, I had no idea that religious identity would play the role that it does.
Can you talk about some of your literary influences?
What the literature I love has taught me is that the work must be about so much more than the story. There are books that have wowed me, and I've read them for enjoyment, but also with specific intent, to see how the marvels were accomplished. The Extra and A Late Divorce by A.B. Yehoshua, A Person of Interest by Susan Choi, The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, The Translator by Nina Schuyler, and the novels of Wallace Stegner, among many others, remain with me.
What's the best thing about family? What's the worst?
The best is the shared history, which gives rise to the shared language, which creates the "institutional knowledge." That's what Simon thinks when he's about to question his mother about his father—that she's the one with the institutional family knowledge that predates his birth.
The worst thing about family? Everyone believes they know everything about every other family member: what they think, what makes them tick, what they should do, how they should do it. If we're lucky, it's very loving, but even then, family breeds a wholly unique and binding brand of familiarity that is not always accurate.
'The Family Tabor,' Wolas's follow-up to her acclaimed 'The Resurrection of Joan Ashby,' is a piercing and multilayered portrayal of an accomplished yet deeply troubled family.
Wolas's second novel, The Family Tabor, unfolds over the course of a single weekend during which the Tabor siblings gather to celebrate their father, Harry, who grapples with the demons of his past misdeeds even as he prepares to accept a prestigious honor. His wife, Roma, is a respected psychologist who struggles to help her own children—Phoebe, Camille, and Simon, outwardly successful adults who are nevertheless caught in maelstroms of interpersonal and internal conflict. Wolas spoke to PW about writing complicated lives, the book's religious themes, and the fascinating dynamics of family.
Can you talk a bit about your background and how you came to writing?
I've written since childhood. I was a lawyer when I wrote a first novel, and I left the firm to revise it, but ended up founding a film company, where I acquired and developed the scripts, stories, and novels of others. Then I thought, "Why am I working on other people's words when my own are what I want to be working on?"
Are the Tabors based on any family you know?
No, but certainly I know people who are searching for love or feel they made the wrong choice in love or are hungry to understand their lives or want a deeper spiritual connection or suddenly find themselves unsure of everything or have had their worlds upended or wish they could undo something they've done.
The Tabors are exceptional in many ways, but they are far from happy. Can you talk about the discontent that many of your characters experience?
The Tabors are accomplished, intelligent, and worldly, but those attributes don't safeguard them or anyone—fictional or real—from confusion and struggle. Harry Tabor is delighted with the world he's created for himself, but then everything he believes about himself is upended. Roma Tabor is a "miracle worker" psychologist for children and teens and a mother who loves her children but sees them clearly. Phoebe, Camille, and Simon are at personal crossroads, each seeking something we all want—love or connection or the belief we're living our right life. The Tabors find themselves searching for new paths they hope will lead them in the right direction.
Religious identity—particularly Jewish and Catholic—plays a fairly significant role in the story. Did you always intend for this theme to be present, or did it arise organically?
I knew that the Tabors were Jewish and that Harry Tabor considers himself a "historical Jew." I also knew that Simon was married to Elena Abascal, who is Catholic, and that their marriage is undergoing some strain. But otherwise, I had no idea that religious identity would play the role that it does.
Can you talk about some of your literary influences?
What the literature I love has taught me is that the work must be about so much more than the story. There are books that have wowed me, and I've read them for enjoyment, but also with specific intent, to see how the marvels were accomplished. The Extra and A Late Divorce by A.B. Yehoshua, A Person of Interest by Susan Choi, The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, The Translator by Nina Schuyler, and the novels of Wallace Stegner, among many others, remain with me.
What's the best thing about family? What's the worst?
The best is the shared history, which gives rise to the shared language, which creates the "institutional knowledge." That's what Simon thinks when he's about to question his mother about his father—that she's the one with the institutional family knowledge that predates his birth.
The worst thing about family? Everyone believes they know everything about every other family member: what they think, what makes them tick, what they should do, how they should do it. If we're lucky, it's very loving, but even then, family breeds a wholly unique and binding brand of familiarity that is not always accurate.
March 31, 2018
THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY
Thank you to the OC.site for this lovely review of THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY
This is Cherise Wolas’ first novel, an accomplished debut by an accomplished woman – a lawyer, film producer and now, novelist in the footsteps of Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver and Sue Miller. A beautifully crafted, literary page-turner about personal evolution.
It’s not exactly a new tale, rather a new twist, in fact a series of twists, told in a pitch perfect voice: a young woman achieves early fame as a writer and determines to devote her life to her craft. No children, no distractions. Seems simple enough.
I was not looking for love. Love was more than simply inconvenient; its consumptive nature always a threat to serious women … I wanted no such conversion, no vulnerability to needless distraction.Of course, Joan falls in love. She believes she has found the partner who shares her goals and respects her resolve to live the writing life. Nevertheless, she finds herself a mother, betrayed by the husband she thought shared her dreams. He has dreams of his own, noble dreams.
Before she knows it, her writing life is shuttered. On hold, she convinces herself. She pours herself into the son who seems her mirror image – an avid sophisticated reader and writer. And then a second son: difficult, precocious, on an entirely different path she does not believe she can share. In secret, she writes. Decades pass before she completes what she believes will be the masterpiece her readers, and the critics, expect.
At this point, I began to wonder if the story would disintegrate into a seventies-style feminist manifesto. Instead, Wolas turns the novel into a nearly Shakespearean drama. Sort of A.S. Byatt meets Indira Ghandhi. A shocking turn of events sends Joan to an entirely new place and direction.
Oh, did I mention the stories within the story? Wolas has created a body of work for Joan, and others – stories, the first pages of novels, video blogs. Masterfully done.
She thinks it likely they may never see him again, that in order to move on he will need to forget he once had a hand in creating a world he didn’t want. She thinks destiny will always win out over second-best, that it’s an impossible burden on those left behind.
She lands in India, where, it seems, introspection always encounters truth. Again, there might have been a cliché in this, but Wolas handles the navigation so realistically, we go with her all the way. We cheer for her and feel for her and the story evolves organically.
Will Joan continue writing and fulfill her promise? The novel has much to do with destiny. Sort of mythologically considers how lives play out despite our best intentions. It’s a very good yarn, especially for those who have not had what Virginia Woolf famously called a room of our own. The creative personas within us subjugated by obligation.
Wolas has been compared to Carson McCullers and Truman Capote, even Joan Didion. High praise indeed. A powerful new voice here.
http://www.ocinsite.com/randy-krafts-...
This is Cherise Wolas’ first novel, an accomplished debut by an accomplished woman – a lawyer, film producer and now, novelist in the footsteps of Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver and Sue Miller. A beautifully crafted, literary page-turner about personal evolution.
It’s not exactly a new tale, rather a new twist, in fact a series of twists, told in a pitch perfect voice: a young woman achieves early fame as a writer and determines to devote her life to her craft. No children, no distractions. Seems simple enough.
I was not looking for love. Love was more than simply inconvenient; its consumptive nature always a threat to serious women … I wanted no such conversion, no vulnerability to needless distraction.Of course, Joan falls in love. She believes she has found the partner who shares her goals and respects her resolve to live the writing life. Nevertheless, she finds herself a mother, betrayed by the husband she thought shared her dreams. He has dreams of his own, noble dreams.
Before she knows it, her writing life is shuttered. On hold, she convinces herself. She pours herself into the son who seems her mirror image – an avid sophisticated reader and writer. And then a second son: difficult, precocious, on an entirely different path she does not believe she can share. In secret, she writes. Decades pass before she completes what she believes will be the masterpiece her readers, and the critics, expect.
At this point, I began to wonder if the story would disintegrate into a seventies-style feminist manifesto. Instead, Wolas turns the novel into a nearly Shakespearean drama. Sort of A.S. Byatt meets Indira Ghandhi. A shocking turn of events sends Joan to an entirely new place and direction.
Oh, did I mention the stories within the story? Wolas has created a body of work for Joan, and others – stories, the first pages of novels, video blogs. Masterfully done.
She thinks it likely they may never see him again, that in order to move on he will need to forget he once had a hand in creating a world he didn’t want. She thinks destiny will always win out over second-best, that it’s an impossible burden on those left behind.
She lands in India, where, it seems, introspection always encounters truth. Again, there might have been a cliché in this, but Wolas handles the navigation so realistically, we go with her all the way. We cheer for her and feel for her and the story evolves organically.
Will Joan continue writing and fulfill her promise? The novel has much to do with destiny. Sort of mythologically considers how lives play out despite our best intentions. It’s a very good yarn, especially for those who have not had what Virginia Woolf famously called a room of our own. The creative personas within us subjugated by obligation.
Wolas has been compared to Carson McCullers and Truman Capote, even Joan Didion. High praise indeed. A powerful new voice here.
http://www.ocinsite.com/randy-krafts-...
March 6, 2018
February 12, 2018
THE FAMILY TABOR
Questions and Answers with Publishers Weekly in connection with THE FAMILY TABOR, forthcoming July 17, 2018
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
January 31, 2018
January 29, 2018
January 21, 2018
THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY IN THE WORLD
"...one of the best books I've ever read... It's absolutely brilliant. I would read all of Joan Ashby's books, and that's a testament to the absolute ridiculous skill that Cherise Wolas has. And it's her first book! I can't get over that. I can't wait to see what's next."
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/01...
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/01...
January 19, 2018
THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY IN THE WORLD
Had the best time on January 18, talking about THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY with a fabulous book group in Scottsdale, AZ. And I was so amazed that every member had read the novel twice, had prepared a 17-page list of quotes from the novel, and were so passionate about the novel and about Joan Ashby, and so delighted to meet me. And I was equally delighted to meet them. A book group discussion via FaceTime was a blast.
January 11, 2018
THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY
Janet Levine Blog: NYJB REVIEW: The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
In Wolas’ pages, Joan’s fully embodied motherhood, despite her ambiguous doubts about her role, are brilliantly accurate. Every mother who has sacrificed her ambition and talents for motherhood will find she is reading about herself. Every husband and wife whose marriage is torn apart will gain new perspectives from reading this novel. Every adult child who wonders about their parents’ relationship to one another and to themselves and their siblings will find a mirror shard here.
View more on Janet Levine's website »
In Wolas’ pages, Joan’s fully embodied motherhood, despite her ambiguous doubts about her role, are brilliantly accurate. Every mother who has sacrificed her ambition and talents for motherhood will find she is reading about herself. Every husband and wife whose marriage is torn apart will gain new perspectives from reading this novel. Every adult child who wonders about their parents’ relationship to one another and to themselves and their siblings will find a mirror shard here.
View more on Janet Levine's website »
